Brief History of the CFCU in the context of EU-Turkey Financial Cooperation

Following the decision of the Helsinki Summit of the European Council on 10-11 December 1999 accepting Turkey as a candidate country, the main Framework of Turkey-EU financial cooperation has changed and EU financial assistance was directed towards the pre-accession goals and ultimately full membership. This change led Turkey to establish a “Decentralised Implementation System (DIS)” under which the CFCU is also operating. The key actors of DIS in Turkey were designated by the Prime Ministry Circular of the 18th July 2001 as follows:

Subsequently, “Pre-Accession Financial Assistance for Turkey” was adopted by the Council Regulation No. 2500/2001 of 17th December 2001. Consequently, the CFCU was established by the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the EU Commission and the Turkish Government on 14th February 2002 which was subsequently ratified by the Grand National Assembly with the Law No.4802 on 30th January 2003. By this Law, the CFCU was designated with the sole responsibility over the all budgeting, tendering, contracting, payments accounting and financial reporting aspects of the procurement of the services, supplies, works and grants in the context of the EU funded programmes in Turkey. In 2003 also, management of financial assistance to Turkey is conferred by the EU Commission on a decentralized basis to the CFCU.

The Addendum No. 1 to the MoU which was signed on 31st March 2006 was also ratified by the Grand National Assembly on 10th May 2006 with the Law No.5500. With this Law, the CFCU administratively linked to the Undersecretariat of Treasury which is headed by the NAO. Addendum No.1 also stipulates that details and such issues as the administrative relationship with Treasury, staffing, status of staff and budgetary affairs shall be regulated with an appropriate legal arrangement. To this end, the Law No.5671 on the Employment and Budget Principles of the CFCU was introduced on 07.06.2007.

The administrative, salary and all other operating costs of the CFCU is covered by the national budget of the Turkish Government.

Since 25.03.2011, IQNet and TSE (Turkish Standards Institution) certified that the CFCU has implemented and maintains an "Information Security Management System (ISMS)" which fulfills the requirements of the "TS ISO / IEC 27001". Please click images at the end of the page to see the certificates.

Our Mission,

Our mission in the EU integration process within the scope of national and international regulations;

to be an institutionalized and dynamic, open structure to cooperation making use of the funds given to our responsibility with respect to the principles of transparency, equal treatment, impartiality, consistency and reliability, in order to contribute to the economic, social and cultural development of Turkey.

Our Vision,

Our vision as being the Implementing Agency in the management of EU funded projects, together with our dynamic and professional personnel;

to be a respectable, recognized, innovative, active and leading institution providing value for money for both Turkish and EU tax payers.

What the CFCU does?

The CFCU, as the Implementing Agency, is responsible for the overall budgeting, tendering, contracting, payments, accounting and financial reporting aspects of all procurement of services, supplies, works and grants in the context of EU funded programmes. Under the responsibility of a “Programme Authorising Officer (PAO)”, the CFCU ensures that the EU rules, regulations and procedures pertaining to the procurement are adhered to and that a proper reporting system is functioning. Senior Program Officers (SPO) in the line ministries assist the PAO in technical implementation of the projects.

The CFCU is situated between EU and Turkish administrations as an autonomous body under the responsibility of a PAO who is also the Head of the CFCU. The CFCU is administratively linked to the Undersecretariat of Treasury which is responsible for the financial management of EU funded programmes.

Functional Aspects

Overall budgeting, tendering, contracting, payments, accounting and financial reporting of all procurement in the context of the EU funded programmes,

Advising the SPOs on EU procurement and financial implementation procedures,

Having an active part together with the beneficiary institution and the contractor in successful implementation of the EU funded projects,

Managing all contractual operations in the in the project implementation period,

Ensuring actual use of EU funds by carrying out tendering and contracting processes of the projects within the certain time frames,

Developing a specialized advisory training capacity and maintain the necessary documentation for this purpose.​

Our Corporate Values

The CFCU accepted the impartiality, equality, honesty, confidentiality, accountability, consistency, reliability, transparency and career ethic principles as norm in its operations, and relations with the third parties with the understanding of high quality and professionalism.